Wednesday 6 July 2011 15.01 EDT
First published on Wednesday 6 July 2011 15.01 EDT

Doubts over the "credibility" of the victim have put the Dominique Strauss-Kahn rape trial in doubt, as if it's only good girls who can ever be raped. This is a perennial problem in the prosecution of rape trials, and a difficult one to dismiss completely. But a lot can be learned from this debacle. The allegations against Strauss-Kahn brought forth a number of other allegations of sexual misconduct. One woman, Tristane Banon, says she is going to press charges over an alleged assault against her in 2003, during which, she says, Strauss-Kahn behaved like "a rutting chimpanzee".

He has vigorously denied the allegations, but whatever the truth about that case, it is important for women, even when they feel there is no chance of a prosecution, even when they are not sure themselves they wish to pursue a prosecution, to report sexual attacks. If their attacker is a serial offender, then they may find that their own experience adds to a pattern of evidence, or may in future be recognised as such. Sexual attacks are often serial, which is why it is so important that complaints are formally made, and efficiently recorded, however little evidence there may be for a single incident.